4.3l vortec balancer shaft retainer bolts

Background:

I stripped down two 4.3l vortec engines and on both of them I encountered severe difficulties in undoing the bolts (screws) holding the balancer shaft retainer in place. These are "torx" driver type of screws and I managed to twist up my "torx" driver bit badly. On both engines the left hand side screw did not budge and was damaged to the extend that it had to be removed by drilling it out. On one of the engines the balancer shaft gear lock bolt won't budge either and was left like that for the time being.

Question:

Are these screws and bolts secured with tread locking compound and do they need special treatment for undoing them? Their torque specifications are not that high and I would not expect them to be so tight. From the information I have it does not seem that tread locking compound need to be applied on reinstallation. I know that on certain applications you have to heat up the bolts (heat gun) in order to soften the locking compound to facilitate in undoing bolts. Am I doing something wrong. As it is I already botched up the two screws but it would be a lot worse in making a mistake on reassembling the engines. I still have to undo the balancer shaft gear lock bolt as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated because stuff like this can make me very nervous in the rebuild process -- Thanks